Marijuana and Cannabis News

A few billion dollars thrown away there, a few million people in prison here, first thing you know you've got a Drug War

​Bill Would Make It A Crime

To Even PLAN To Smoke Marijuana In Another Country-- Even If It Is Legal In That Country

The House Judiciary Committee is considering legislation (HR 313) Thursday that makes it a federal crime to plan to commit a drug offense in another country that would be illegal if it was actually committed in the U.S. -- even if the offense is actually legal in the other country.

Federal legislation (HR 1254) that would criminalize possession and sales of chemical compounds found in products such as K2, Spice, and "bath salts" will also be voted on in the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday and is expected to pass. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Charles Dent (R-Pennsylvania), has already passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee, so the next step would be the full House. Similar legislation is sailing unimpeded through the Senate.

Both bills would subject Americans to mandatory minimum sentencing and increase prison expenses that taxpayers have to pay -- at a time when members of Congress are cutting drug education, treatment and prevention citing the need to reduce federal expenses.

Bill Piper, DPA: "Instead of continuing to do what doesn't work, policymakers should try something new for once"

​"Prohibition didn't work for alcohol, it hasn't worked for marijuana, and it's not going to work for synthetic drugs," said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. "Policymakers have two choices -- continue with prohibition and hand more drugs over to organized crime to profit from and fill U.S. jails with even more nonviolent offenders, or regulate these drugs to protect both public health and safety.

"Instead of continuing to do what doesn't work, policymakers should try something new for once," Piper said.

Provoked by extensive media coverage of several tragic events involving young people who allegedly consumed a synthetic drug, lawmakers in more than a dozen states have passed laws criminalizing synthetic drugs. In November 2010, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), acting in accordance with its emergency scheduling authority, temporarily added several chemical compounds found in so-called "synthetic marijuana" products (which are not marijuana, and do not contain anything found in marijuana, or they wouldn't have been legal until now) into Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act.

Federal lawmakers are now weighing whether to permanently place many of the chemical compounds found in synthetic drug products under Schedule I. Drug policy reform advocates point out that prohibiting a substance creates a lucrative illicit market that benefits organized crime, and that a more safe and effective approach would be to strictly regulate these drugs so that the federal government can control potency and establish age controls to keep the drugs out of the hands of young people.

In 2009, advocates persuaded legislators in Maryland to pass legislation that regulates and taxes salvia, another drug that many states have criminalized in recent years.

​A second bill under consideration -- the Drug Trafficking Safe Harbor Elimination Act -- would authorize U.S. criminal prosecution of anyone in the U.S. suspected of conspiring with one or more persons, or aiding or abetting one or more persons, to commit at any place outside the United States an act that would constitute a violation of the U.S. Controlled Substances Act if committed in the United States. These penalties apply even if the controlled substance is legal or semi-legal under some circumstances in the other country.

The execrable legislation is sponsored by the ignoble Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the ass-wig good-old-boy who single-handedly held up the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act back in May. Smith, also known for his anti-immigrant policies, really hates medical marijuana patients, too. Back in 2009 when the Obama Administration announced it would no longer prioritize going after cannabis patients, Smith stridently called for the Department of Justice to "enforce federal marijuana laws."

"If we want to win the war on drugs, federal prosecutors have to investigate and prosecute all medical marijuana dispensaries," Smith, who chairs the House Judiciary panel, said at the time. (See Rep. Smith's contact info at the end of this article.)

An American treatment provider working with doctors in England, Denmark, Germany, or Switzerland to provide heroin-assisted treatment and sterile syringes to heroin users in those countries could face arrest.

An, get this: So could an otherwise law-abiding American planning with some friends to use marijuana in the Netherlands while on vacation there.

Even when applied against drug traffickers, the conspiracy law would likely perpetuate injustice. Already, under U.S. drug conspiracy laws, a person can be found guilty even when there are no drugs or other physical evidence involved. The uncorroborated word of someone pointing fingers to get a reduced sentence is all it takes.

Moreover, anyone convicted of being "part of a drug conspiracy" is punished not for the offense they actually committed, but for all the offenses committed by members in the "conspiracy."

This has led to very low-level, impoverished, first-time offenders receiving mandatory minimum sentences that are decades long. Conspiracy laws drive the so-called "girlfriend problem" whereby too many women are sentenced to harsh sentences for the crimes of their often-abusive partners.

"The war on drugs has proven time and time again to be a war on families and communities, especially communities of color," Piper said. "The U.S. can't incarcerate its way out of its drug problems and should stop trying. The only way out of the drug war mess is to start treating drug use as a healthy issue instead of a criminal justice issue."

"Even as legislators increasingly embrace drug policy reforms, the knee-jerk criminalization of these drugs demonstrates that elected officials still tend to prohibit first, and ask questions later," said Grant Smith, federal policy coordinator for the Drug Policy Alliance. "Outright criminalization would only drive the demand for these drugs to the black market, which provides no age restrictions or other regulatory controls.

"Product labeling requirements, as well as marketing, branding and retail display restrictions, are proven to reduce youth access to tobacco products and impulse tobacco purchases among adults," Smith said. "This approach is working for tobacco, a far more harmful drug that has contributed to more deaths than alcohol and illicit drugs combined. As a result of education initiatives and age restrictions, tobacco use has declined dramatically over time despite its legality for adults."

Here is contact info for Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, sponsor of HR 313, the Conspiracy Bill and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee:

Seriously!!? These control freak politicians need to focus on real issues and real crimes. What a wasre of time and money. Is this the kind of 'work' we are paying these politicians to do? AND do we really think that we can now prosecute individuals for their actions in OTHER COUNTRIES> How long do you think your arms need to be. Stop our poverty, build jobs, fix healthcare, DO THE JOB WE ELECTED YOU TO DO!

May Lamar Smith burn in the hell that he is creating. I've contacted him and it's hopeless. He's just another power-induced good-old-boy just like they say. My sister died from the legal drug Xyprexa. It shut down her pancreas and I watched as all of her other organs shut down one at a time. Her body swelled to balloon size and all the surgeon could do has to eviscerate disembowel) her in order to take the swelling down so that she would look more normal while she died. Then I watched her die. The Federal Government wants to place these substances on a schedule one because they claim that a few kids have died? I want to place Xyprexa on the schedule one because of the way my sister died.

wait.. isn't this how the CIA is able to work outside the US?... because they are out of the US Governments jurisdiction.Then how can travelers be held to US law, but CIA isn't??? Double/ illegal standard.

Let them do it, and when the country falls out from under them we will march on their homes and take all our money back that they stole. John McCain has seven houses while thousands are homeless against their will. Why does John McCain need seven houses?

America, is this the best we can do? We elected these idiots in hopes they fight for us, but instead they pull this kind of crap with a smile on their faces. This country is doomed. Smoke Kush and have a great day!

Mexico is destroying itself with American guns over American drugs. Soon they will be destroying Americans, just as gangland violence affected civilians in old Chicago. Escalating the "war on drugs" (which can never be won, because people will never stop using drugs) is not the answer.

The TRUE conspiracy is in the government keeping this from the public.

We need a reset of our government. Do NOT vote incumbent unless they support cannabis (medical, legal, whatever). Get them out! Support candidates who will stop the mindless prohibition and take back the country. It's YOUR LIFE and if you don't stand up for what's right, they'll roll right over you and take even MORE. We say you can't get blood from a turnip but they'll keep trying until you are dust, and even then they'll take it out of your children.

Put the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of the Republicans in Congress. Ike, Teddy, and Abe are dead so that leaves no one in the party with a decent, American soul. The GOP is waging an all out war on anyone who doesn't go to work in a chauffeured limousine. The protests on Wall Street and elsewhere are a good sign but its too little and probably a bit too late.

No Republican jackass will vote to end prohibition. None of them. In fact, this is what we'll see from them. More of the same egregious heavy-handed fascist crap they've always resorted to. They'd put a million people in prison for just thinking about smoking MJ without shedding a single tear. Their buddies in the corporate prison industry salivate at the prospect of millions more people to fill thousands of new privately run prisons. This is what they do to people like us.

Face it, the GOP cares for middle and lower class Americans the same as they care for the squished bug on the bottom of their shoe. We aren't people to them. The size of our portfolio has got to be big enough to pay their campaigns millions of dollars or we ain't shit to them.

The Democrats aren't much better but at least we have some allies in their number. Take a lesson from the Occupy Wall Street folks and get active. We have to reach the regular folks, not just our friends at the gym or at work but Mom and Dad and Aunt Betty too. The Corporate Media (and their mind numbing 'car-crash' journalism) is in bed with the GOP so there's no answer there - unless something sensational happens. Car Crash Journalism means that you have to cause a car crash to get any press these days,

We're stuck in a hole. BUT, there's still hope. Our movement is in need of boots on the ground. People from all walks of life. Work to get real candidates elected, work the phones or pass out flyers. Then vote. Regardless of what fascist road blocks the GOP put into place, get your ass to the polls and vote those bastards out of office. Never vote for a Republican again. The brand is toxic, any 'good' Republican has had to sell his soul to Grover Norquist to stay employed so forget about looking for decency there.

This is shaping up to be, not a war on drugs, but a war on the middle class. They hate us and want us to stay in the basement and make their shit and shut the fuck up. Get out of line and you go to jail.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting the hell out of the usa. And soon. Arrest us for what they think our intentions are? Thats all folks. Were fucked. Get out before they have the freedom to take yours on a whim.

Right now consider who is running the House judiciary committee. Right-wing, Tea Party nut jobs who don't believe in science but mythological beings and ideas. Any more laws passed to criminalize the citizens of this country are authoritarian in nature and there for undemocratic. Time to kill Reefer Madness at its source. Truth is the answer and the key to cannabis liberation.

​A second bill under consideration would authorize U.S. criminal prosecution of anyone in the U.S. suspected of conspiring with one or more persons, or aiding or abetting one or more persons, to commit at any place outside the United States an act that would constitute a violation of the U.S. Controlled Substances Act if committed in the United States. These penalties apply even if the controlled substance is legal or semi-legal under some circumstances in the other country.

Does this include the DEA and its agents who aren't stopping diddly from coming across the border, and making deals with cartel families?

Feel like a fucking child, always being told what I can and can't do in this corrupted country. Need to get rid of all the people running the government and start over. These ignorant bastards are gonna have us under lock and key soon.

This shit has to stop, aren't we controlled enough. Free country my ass, the United States is becoming like a prison, government controlling everything we do. I wish everyone could see what is happening here before we end up having to ask the fucking government if we can use the god damn shitter. I hate this country more everyday. People need to take a stand and take this country back from the greedy and ignorant assholes who are running it.

So do you have a ledger as to the money that was stolen from you? Why did you pick John McCain's name? Quick to call out a repub name aren't you??? This is why we are handicapped in our plight.. You sound brilliant "Just sat no to WASPs...." You must be in office...

The Declaration of Independence- We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

I don't think this law is Constitutional in any way. I f we travel we are subject to our visiting country's laws. Again, the Constitution is the supreme law of OUR LAND . And not all other Federal legislation that is passed. People.. I mean lawmakers really need to read the Constitution.You (lawmaker) have enumerated, limited/listed powers. You can make laws that pertain to your Constitutionally approved powers.... Thats it!!!!!!!!

On 'We, the People" the top three petitions are MJ based. The movement is trying to force Obama to take notice and do something about this travesty. NORML's legalization petition is still #1 with over 51,000 signatures, others are approaching 10,000 or more.

Will this response give Obama the push he needs to address the issue? My cynicism says no. The Obama Administration is terrified of the MJ issue. They see it as a lose-lose prospect. The reason is simply that they are scared to death of Republicans. A true leader with half a testicle would latch onto this issue and make it a national debate with science and research on one side, fear and ignorance on the other. Are there any of those left in DC?

Online petitions are great for self-satisfaction but do squat for policy. They are ignored more than Sarah Palin's husband. We have to get active and loud to get noticed. Other, more radical alternatives are out there but we're not there yet. We do it by the numbers first, then if fear and ignorance rule the day, we do what has to be done.

The DEA made a mistake by spitting in the face of all the research and evidence on medical cannabis. It's up to us to bring this to light and force Obama to stick to his 'science trumps fear' speech during the 2008 campaign. If you can ignore all the science that supports the medical benefits of MJ, who knows what other facts you can choose to dismiss. Progressives rely on facts supported by verifiable evidence, the GOP rely on fear supported by willful ignorance. Which side is more American? Which side is Obama?

Yes, you can. Create simple language stating what you want and you'll be given a website address to publish. You'll be responsible for getting 150 signatures before it goes public on the WH web site. Post it in groups on Facebook, Google+, Twitter - and give it popular hashtags. The overreaching MUST stop but we have to keep making noise to make change!

I agree whole heartedly. It already is a war. They've killed hundreds; just look at the MPP.org website for the names and faces of the casualties on our side. There will be no justice for them as the DEA is above the law. They just took our guns away and now this. You need boots for phones and fliers? pfft. You need boots for marching good sir and I suspect I'm not the only one considering.

To be honest that would not influence the alcohol market much. Because cannabis is available to people older than 18 in Holland doesn't mean they stopped drinking, and if you visit the country on the Queen's Birthday you'll see that alcohol still has a lot of users in a country where pot is legally sold.They probably lobby for prohibition, but the alcohol industry doesn't have much to fear from legalisation...